29. Tetris Sashing

Fabric Requirements

Fabric 1: 2 – 3.5” x 2” rectangles

Fabric 2: 2 – 3.5” x 2” rectangles

Fabric 2: 2 – 3.5” x 2” rectangles

Fabric 2: 2 – 3.5” x 2” rectangles

Instructions

Layout the four fabrics similar to the design above. I named this the ‘Tetris’ Sashing because it reminds me of the ‘L’ blocks in tetris. Sew each of the rectangular pairs together. Iron towards the darker fabric.

Piece the squares together so they keep the ‘L’ tetris shape and pattern.

This week Cedi is the ‘Star of the Week’ in her class. She got to bring in her favorite books, stuffed animals and other fun things to show off to her class. One of the things the teacher asked us to send is a letter about why Cedi is special to us. I feel like today, her sixth birthday, is an appropriate day to share with you my letter.

Why is Mercedi Rose special to me?

Six years ago today we joyously welcomed our very first little baby, Mercedi Rose, into this world. She weighed in at 6lbs 13 oz and was 20-inches long – tall and skinny – just like today. Six years ago our lives changed forever.

Cedi brings joy into my life every day. She is such a unique, thoughtful, caring girl. Cedi is special to me for so many reasons!

Cedi is special because she calls her knees her patella's.

Cedi is special because she listens to me when I talk to her.

Cedi is special because she adores her two younger sisters and would move the world to make them happy.

Cedi is special because I can see her so excited about the new things she is learning each and every day even when she doesn’t know it!

Cedi is special because she tells me I’m the best Mama ever!

Cedi is special because she truly helps us when we really needs her to – be it stickering caramel apples, quietly playing in the store while we help customers, or drawing up the hugest hopscotch ever to keep her and Capri entertained for hours.

Cedi is special because she has an incredible smile all the time.

Cedi is special because she gives me the biggest hugs.

Cedi is special because she knows just what to do when someone is sad.

Cedi is special because she taught us how to give her Great Grandma and Great Grandpa hugs and kisses in heaven.

Cedi is special because she never stops talking!

Cedi is special because she’s an amazing sleeper.

Cedi is special because she hasn’t stopped moving from day one.

I could go on and on but I’ll stop now. Cedi is an amazingly special little girl that I hope you can all see the light around her as I do.

I recently posted about the completion of my Craftsy BOM blocks (nope – I still haven’t decided on what to do about sashing). Well – I’ve finally taken a few hours to complete the blocks of two other quilt alongs and a personal project of mine for my 8 inch scrappy sampler.

First I’m going to break the blocks down into quilt alongs and then I’ll end by showing you what happens when you mix all 80 blocks together into one quilt!

Crumb Along – I only sort of followed this one and I made 8 ‘Crumb Blocks.’ I really enjoyed crumbing though and can definitely see myself doing more crumbing in future projects. The next blocks that I want to show you are from the Quilting Gallery’s Beginner’s Quilt Along. I took the 12.5” block tutorials they showed us and I made mine into 8.5” blocks – that’s why they’re a bit wonky. Much easier to ‘wonk’ them than it is to do the math from the 12 to 8 inch block pattern. You can also see that I may have made a few of the blocks too small so I added a ‘crumb’ border around them to get to size.

These are the set of blocks that started this craziness – from the Blogger’s BOM Quilt Along. 13 different quilters posted a tutorial once a month. It was a fun – no stress BOM to follow along with. These Mariner’s Compass Blocks were a personal challenge to myself. Last March, I took a short 1 hour Mariner’s Compass Lecture from quilter, Chris Lynn Kirsch. She was a great teacher and speaker. I bought her new book, ‘Compass Capers’ and went home and made my very first Mariner’s Compass. I wanted to do more than just one for this quilt so I also drafted a pattern for a circular compass and for the large four quarter compass with each quarter being an 8-inch finished block. I think they’ll make perfect added interest to my scrappy BOM quilt. When I saw that the New York Beautiy Quilt Along was making 8.5” blocks (just like the Blogger’s BOM) I knew that I was going to make a crazy, scrappy, sampler quilt. These are blocks I NEVER would have tried with out the push of the Quilt Along. I really enjoyed the paper piecing portion of these blocks. Not the hugest fan of the curved piecing end portion, but I definitely got better at that as my blocks continued. Plus – how cool do they look!? I even have my mother-in-law impressed by these – quite the feat I must say!

Alright – the moment you’ve been waiting for! Here are all 80 blocks mostly haphazardly put together. I think when I put it together it will continue to be mostly random other than the New York Beauty Blocks and the Mariner’s Compass Quarter points. I have some ideas – some different type sashing may be involved. We’ll see what the quilt tells me it wants after it hangs out on my design wall for a few days.

I am hoping some people decide to limit themselves solely to scraps for ‘My Favorite Block Quilt Along’ next year as I have in this 8 inch sampler. I think the results are looking good. It may be too wild for some so you may want to pick one to three yards of other fabric to use consistently with your blocks and then use your scraps for different blocks. Just some thoughts…

Happy Sunday everyone! I have been itching to have some challenges to motivate me into creating something super cool again so I’ve decided to hold an ‘Off Season Project QUILTING’ Challenge. It’ll be a great warm up for us all to get ready for the start of Season 4 of Project QUILTING in January.

You’ll have a two week deadline for this challenge since I know the Holiday season can be extra busy for some.

THE CHALLENGE:

Happy Holidays.

I am challenging you to make something quilted that has to do with the upcoming Holidays (specifically any holiday that happens in December or January). This can be a wide range of items and I’ve included a few photo’s from flickr that I found to give you some inspiration. I promise – if you search ‘Quilted Holiday’s’ on flicker you’ll find some amazing ideas!

THE TWIST:

You must use at least two different methods of quilting to complete your Holiday piece. ie. piecing, English paper piecing, paper piecing, appliqué, templates, etc. Note in your final description the methods you used.

THE RULES:

Have FUN! These off season challenges aren’t about winning a prize – they’re about being inspired to create something you may not have in the past or you may think you have time for. I can’t wait to see all the fun holiday items you come up with!

Please remember that these projects need to be created during the time frame of the challenge to qualify for the challenge.

If you need advice/tips/help (or you just want to give us all a sneak peak) with your project as you work on it feel free to post pictures to the flickr group: Project QUILTING WIP: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1430386@N24/

POST your entries with a description of your creative process, including where you are (ie, I create in Madison, WI) and the size of your project by Sunday, December 9th, 2012, at noon, CST, to this flickr group – http://www.flickr.com/groups/1401824@N21/ OR email a picture/description of your completed project to {lapaceksorchard at gmail dot com} with PROJECT QUILTING in the subject line and I’ll post your piece for you. ( 2 weeks to finish the challenge)

If you do want people to truly critique (the good and the bad) your project please post it to the Flickr Group: Project QUILTING – Critiques

This is the barn quilt I started eons ago in response to one of Kim's Crafty Apple (recently rebranded to Persimon Dreams) quilt challenges. Here it is finally finished.

I am so so so happy that WaggonsWest shared her project with us even though it didn’t get done during the week time frame. Yes, there is just a week to finish the challenges in Project QUILTING – but does that mean you can only be inspired by the challenge in that week time frame – NO! This quilt was from the Barn Quilt Challenge and I’m so happy to have my challenge continue to inspire wonderful creations! If one of my Project QUITLING challenges has inspired you to create a project – please, don’t hesitate to share it with us all!

Because I can and because I’m in need of some inspiration – I’ll be posting an off season challenge tomorrow on my blog at noon. Because of the holiday season, I’ll be giving everyone two weeks to complete this challenge. More details to come tomorrow!

It is time for me to announce the next Quilt Along that I’ll be running via my blog. This past year I once again fell in love with Quilt Alongs. It’s been a great way for me to use up my scrap stash and I’m having lots of fun learning new techniques and honing the ones I’m not very good at yet. I’m going to keep the theme of this years Quilt Along pretty simple. In fact it’s simply going to be called:

“My Favorite Block Quilt Along”

twitter hastag: #mfbqa

Which means – I’m recruiting 19 block designers to volunteer to post a tutorial on their favorite quilt block. I can either link to your blog post from mine or you can send me the info and I can blog it for you if you don’t have a blog. Your block can be pieced, appliqued, paper pieced or using templates. All I request is that they are not the same block as another designer picks. Once you sign up for a date let me know the name of the quilt block you’ll be demonstrating – first come first serve. If it’s one you came up with yourself – even better. Just tell me ‘Original Block’ and we’ll go into more details when it’s time for your tutorial.

The other twist to this quilt along is that I want the dimensions of the blocks given in both 12.5” block sizes AND 6.5” sizes. We’ll be doing this so participants can decide if they want to do one 12.5” blocks or 4 6.5” blocks. Once all the tutorials are up everyone will still have 20 blocks to make a quilt top with but added ‘dimension’ if they choose to do one or ten of the blocks in the 4 6.5” options. Throughout the quilt along I’ll also show you some options if you would rather do one 6.5” and then add around it in other ways to make your block 12.5”.

Above is a picture of the ‘Christmas in July Block-A-Thon’ that I designed a block for and participated in this year. Each designer chose a different size block and then we were given a layout for putting them all together. I love the piece-y crazy modern-ess of this quilt and I hope to achieve the same type of effect with this ‘Favorite Block Quilt Along’ but hopefully with less final construction directions (not that they were hard to follow).

These are the blocks from the CRAFTSY BOM I participated in earlier this year. I intend on adding some fun pieced sashing to help bring these 20 blocks together cohesively. The Home Sweet Home Quilt Along from earlier this year included 49 pieced sashings to help bring a cohesiveness to the qulit.

And finally – here is the BOM Quilt Along that I’m working on now. Here I am creating 8.5 inch blocks from multiple quilt-alongs, using only my scrap fabric, and combining them all to create this funtastic, scrappy look.

***Thank you to all of our block design volunteers! We are full up and now it's time to just get excited about the Quilt Along! Grab the button at the bottom of this post and help me spread the word about the fun!

Hopefully this quilt along sounds like as much fun to you as it does to me! If you want to be a block designer for the project please email me at: lapaceksorchard {at} gmail {dot} com with the date you want and the name of the block you want to make a tutorial for. It’s going to be completely on a first come first serve basis. I’ll be editing this post as often as I can to show which dates and blocks are taken.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I want to wish you and your family a wonderful day!

I’m hosting my very first Thanksgiving this year. The turkey and the ham (I don’t like turkey) are in the roaster ovens cooking right now. I made the buns on Tuesday and just need to heat them up before we eat and the potatoes are ready to be put in the oven just before we eat. My parents are relaxing on a cruise to Hawaii right now (yes – I’m super jealous!) and my in-laws are coming over. I put my mother-in-law in charge of pie, a veggie, and the stuffing (I also don’t like stuffing). My brother is also joining us and he stocked us up nicely on wine. I think it’s going to be a wonderful, tummy filled afternoon.

My grandmother passed away earlier this year and it’s going to be strange not having her around at the holidays. One of the things we all remember about my Grandma is her cooking. No matter when you went to her house for a visit she was always trying to feed you. I’ve been collecting recipes from my cousins and aunts and uncles to put together a family cookbook for the Holiday’s. Since I’m collecting them I am lucky enough to already have them in my possession! I used her bun recipe and made my very first homemade buns (and I think they worked!), her sour cream potatoes, and her pistachio fluff salad (aka Green Clouds) for us to enjoy at our table. I’m so thankful that we have these written down – every time I make them I’m going to remember my Grandma. And I swear – she had to be helping me for me to have some edible (if not delicious) buns this year!

There is so much for me to be thankful for this year! I’ll just start a list for you

My incredible daughters – they are happy, healthy, and give me joy each and every day. Even when I’m sad or cranky – they always do something that make me smile.

My amazing supportive husband – seriously, he puts up with me and loves me for all my craziness. I couldn’t accomplish all I do without him. We’ve been together for 10 years and married 7. I look at him with more love each day.

As Jared says at the dinner table every night, “Good Food”.

And of course – you! All of my readers and supporters! You make me want to get to the computer and share things that have happened to me, what I’ve learned, or exciting news!

I would love to hear what you are thankful for this year!

Uncle Brian came for Thanksgiving and won’t be here for Cedi’s birthday next week so he gave her early birthday gifts. Not only did he give her a Hello Kitty Headband maker, a telescope but also her very first snowboard! I just want to point out that gross stache on my brother’s face is because he’s raising money in the Movember fundraiser for Men’s Health. You can donate to support him by going here: http://us.movember.com/mospace/5455697/. Thank goodness he can shave it off on December 1st once he finishes a 5K. I think Pip’s going to be a snowboarder too…

With that – Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Have a wonderful day of family, friends, food and celebration!

This summer a friend of mine, Tisha Sandberg, an incredible quilter and fiber and textile artist, asked if I would be interested in having a few of my quilts in a show she was putting together. I immiediately said ‘YES! Of course!” She asked if she could hang ‘Owl Be Yours’ and “Bicycle Race’. They hung during August in the Nohr Gallery Quilt Exhibit ‘Eclectic Visions’ at UW Platteville during most of August. Since apple season started early I didn’t get to go down and see them myself but here’s the pictures she sent me. I was extremely honored to have pieces displayed in this show!Owl be Yours

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